The Dwarfs of Jerusalem

Jerusalem is abuzz with brilliant new ideas. The brightest
minds of our political establishment are grappling with the problems
created by the ongoing Arab revolution that is reshaping the landscape
around us.

Here is the latest crop of mind-bogglingly innovative ideas:

Minister of Defense Ehud Barak has announced that he is going to ask
the U.S. for a grant of another $20 billion for more
state-of-the-art fighter planes, missile boats, a submarine, troop
carriers, and so on.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had his picture taken surrounded by
female soldiers—like Moammar Gadhafi in the good old days—looking
beyond the Jordan River and announcing that the Israeli army would never
ever leave the Jordan Valley. According to him, this occupied strip of
land is Israel’s vital “security border.”

This slogan is as old as the occupation itself. It was part of the
celebrated Allon Plan, which was designed to surround the West Bank with
Israeli territory. Incidentally, the father of the plan, Yigal Allon,
was also a leader of the kibbutz movement, and the Jordan Valley looked
to him like an ideal area for new kibbutzim—it is flat and well-watered
and was sparsely populated.

However, times have changed. When Allon was a legendary commander in
the 1948 war, he did not even dream of missiles. Today, missiles
launched from beyond the Jordan can easily reach my home in Tel Aviv.
When Netanyahu declares that we need the Jordan Valley in order to stop
the Arabs from smuggling missiles into the West Bank, he is, well, a
little bit behind the times.

When the politicians bravely face the new world, the army dares not
lag behind. This week, several division commanders announced that they
were preparing for Tahrir-style “non-violent mass uprisings” in the West
Bank. Troops are trained, riot-control means are stocked. Our glorious
army is being prepared for yet another colonial police job.

To reinforce the mental vigor of the leadership, Netanyahu has now
mobilized an awesome intellect: he has appointed Gen. Yaakov Amidror as
chief of the National Security Council. Amidror, the highest-ranking
kippa-wearing officer in the army, has never hidden his
ultra-ultra-nationalist views, including his total opposition to a
Palestinian state and peace in general. He is, by the way, the officer
who recently mentioned approvingly that some armies put “a bullet into
the heads” of soldiers who don’t rise to storm an enemy position.

It is only fitting that Netanyahu invited the National Front Party,
which includes openly fascist elements, to join his government this
week. They refused, because Netanyahu is not extreme enough for them.

In the meantime, a dozen top politicians, from Avigdor Lieberman
down, have been dusting off moribund plans for “interim agreements”—old
merchandise sitting sadly on the shelves, with no buyers in sight.

All in all: political dwarfs, confronted with a revolutionary new
reality that they can neither understand nor cope with. (This is not to
insult real-life dwarfs, who are, of course, as intelligent as anyone
else.)

With this bunch of leaders, it is almost utopian to ask what we could
and should do to attune ourselves to the new geopolitical reality.

Assuming that the Arab world, or a large part of it, is on the road
to democracy and social progress, how will this affect our future?

Can we build bridges to such progressive, multi-party societies? Can
we persuade them to accept us as a legitimate part of the region? Can we
participate in the political and economic emergence of a “New Middle
East”?

I believe we can. But the absolute, unalterable precondition is that we make peace with the Palestinian people.

It is the unshakable—and self-fulfilling—conviction of the entire
Israeli establishment that this is impossible. They are quite right—as
long as they are in charge, it is indeed impossible. But with another
leadership, will things be different?

If both sides—and this depends heavily on Israel, the incomparably
stronger side—really want peace, peace is there for the asking. All
the requirements are lying plainly on the table. They have been
discussed endlessly. The points for compromise are clearly marked. It
would need no more than a few weeks to work out the details. Borders,
Jerusalem, settlements, refugees, water, security—we all know by now
what the solutions are. (I and others have enumerated them several
times.) What is lacking is the political will.

A peace agreement—signed by the PLO, ratified in a popular
referendum, accepted by Hamas—will radically change the attitude of
the Arab peoples in general toward Israel.

This is not simply a matter of form—it goes deep into the bedrock
of national consciousness. Not one of the ongoing uprisings in the
various Arab countries is anti-Israeli by nature. Nowhere do the Arab
masses cry out for war. Indeed, the idea of war contradicts their basic
aspirations: social progress, freedom, a standard of living that allows
a life in dignity.

However, as long as the occupation of Palestinian territory goes on,
the Arab masses will reject conciliation with Israel. Whatever the
feelings of any particular Arab people toward the Palestinians—all
Arabs feel profoundly obligated to help in the liberation of their
fellow Arabs. As an Egyptian leader once told me: “They are our poor
relatives, and our tradition does not allow us to forsake a poor
relative. It is a matter of honor.”

Therefore, Israel will crop up in every free election campaign in the
Arab countries, and every party will feel obliged to condemn Israel.

One argument against peace, endlessly repeated by our official
propaganda, is that Hamas will never accept it. The specter of Islamist
movements in other countries winning democratic elections—as Hamas did
in Palestine—is painted on the wall as a mortal danger.

It may be worthwhile remembering that Hamas was effectively created by Israel in the first place.

During the first decades of the occupation, the military governors
forbade any kind of Palestinian political activity, even by those who
were advocating peace with Israel. Activists were sent to prison. There
was only one exception: Islamists. Not only was it impossible to prevent
them from assembling in the mosques—the only public space left open—but the military governors were told to encourage Islamist
organizations as a counter force to the PLO, which was considered the
main enemy. The PLO was and remains non-religious, and many Christians
have played a significant role in it.

That was, of course, a stupid idea, typical of the short-sightedness
of our political and military leaders, as far as Arab affairs are
concerned. On the outbreak of the first intifada, the Islamist movement
constituted itself as Hamas (“Islamic Resistance Movement”) and took up
the fight.

The emergence of Hezbollah was also a result of Israeli actions. When
Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 in order to destroy the PLO mini-state
in the south of the country, it created a vacuum that was soon filled by
the newly founded Shi’ite Party of God, Hezbollah.

Both Hamas and Hezbollah aspire to power in their respective
countries. That is their main aim. For both, the fight against Israel is
more a means than an end. Once peace is achieved, their energies will
be directed to the struggle for power in their own countries.

Will Hamas accept peace? It has declared as much in a roundabout way:
if the Palestinian Authority makes peace, and if
the peace agreement is ratified by a Palestinian referendum, Hamas will
accept it as an expression of the people’s will. The same goes for all
the Islamic movements in the various Arab countries, with the exception
of al-Qaeda and the like, which are not nationally based political
parties but international conspiratorial organizations.

With a peace treaty freely accepted by the Palestinians as the
satisfaction of their national aspirations, any intervention by other
Arab countries will become redundant, if not downright ridiculous.
Hezbollah, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and similar national
religious organizations will concentrate their efforts on gaining power
within the new democratic structures.

With this obstacle removed, Israel will be judged by the Arab masses
for what it is, at that time. We shall have the historic chance to take
part in the reshaping of the entire region. Our deeds will speak.

More than 50 years ago, the then-crown prince of Morocco, Moulai
Hassan—the later king Hassan II—made a historic proposal: to invite
Israel to join the Arab League. At the time, the idea sounded outlandish
and was soon forgotten. (Except by the king himself, who reminded me of
it when he received me secretly in 1981.)

Today, with a new Arab world in sight, this utopian vision is
suddenly looking more realistic. Yes, after peace, with the free and
sovereign state of Palestine becoming a full member of the UN, a
reformed regional structure, including Israel, perhaps Turkey, and, in
due course, Iran, will move into the realm of reality.

A region with open borders, with commercial activity and economic
cooperation flourishing from Marrakesh to Mosul, from Haifa to Aden,
within a generation or two—yes, that is one of the possibilities
opened by the current earth-shaking events.

Such a development would need, of course, a total change in our basic
concepts, some of which are at least as old as Zionism itself.

It will not happen as long as our political and intellectual life is
dominated by Netanyahu, Lieberman, Barak, Eli Yishai, Tzipi Livni,
Shimon Peres, and their ilk. The stage must be cleared of this whole crop
of dwarfs.

Can this happen? Will it happen? “Realists” will shake their
heads—as they did before the Germans tore down their wall, before Boris
Yeltsin climbed on that tank, and before the Americans elected an
African-American president whose middle name is Hussein.

Author: Uri Avnery

Uri Avnery is a longtime Israeli peace activist. Since 1948 he has advocated the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. In 1974, Uri Avnery was the first Israeli to establish contact with the PLO leadership. In 1982 he was the first Israeli ever to meet Yasser Arafat, after crossing the lines in besieged Beirut. He served three terms in the Israeli Knesset and is the founder of Gush Shalom (Peace Bloc). Visit his Web site.
View all posts by Uri Avnery